Death and Strawberryand Other Tales
by Rukia's Reflection
Summary: A collection of ficlets, mostly to do with Ichigo/Rukia, with a few other pairings on occasion.
1. Chapter 1: Zombies

Ch 1: Zombies

"So what kind of horror movie are we about to watch?"

"Its a zombie flick. You know. The living dead," Ichigo answered as he popped the DVD of 'Dawn of the Dead' out of its case and placed it in the DVD player's tray. His dad was out of town tonight and the next night, and Yuzu and Karin were each at one of their friends' houses, so he took the opportunity to set up a movie night to spend a little time with Rukia since she had just returned to his life. They used to do this when she was here before, and he had missed it considerably.

Rukia watched him with a wary expression. "And how are you so sure I'll enjoy this?"

"You deal with death on a daily basis, and you love movies with action, blood and gore. I just thought you might enjoy this one," he shrugged.

She shoved a handful of popcorn in her mouth, followed by a long sip from her soda, all while mentally preparing herself to be bored out of her mind. However, as the movie played, she could tell that this would not be the case. She couldn't explain it, but as the movie played out, she was finding it harder and harder to maintain her composure. Just something about the dead coming back to life, with no known cause, was terrifying to her. By the end of the movie, as Ichigo was turning the lights in the living room back on, she found herself having to draw on her highly practiced Kuchiki calm in order to fool Ichigo into thinking she had been bored by it.

"So? Did you like it? Hate it? What?" Ichigo asked her, unable to see past that damned Kuchiki mask. He had always hated it when she did that. It reminded him too much of her brother. It didn't suit her at all.

"It was fine. A little bland," Rukia lied through her teeth.

He could form no words in his shock. He could only stare after her as she got up to take their now empty popcorn bowl to the kitchen to wash it out, along with their empty glasses. He suddenly got an idea. _I'll show her bland..._ and with that, he quietly headed upstairs to his bedroom, still tripping over the fact that the movie had no effect on her. Thinking she was lying, and determined to get some kind if honest response from her, he proceeded with his plan.

Rukia washed their glasses, and placed them in the dish drainer to dry. She returned to the living room to find it unoccupied. "Ichigo?" she called out in the most normal voice she could muster. She did not want to be alone after watching that movie. It was out of the question. Rukia was certain that she would not be sleeping well for weeks, maybe longer.

She turned out the lights in the living room, and quickly headed up to Ichigo's room. The lights were off-which she promptly remedied-, and he was nowhere to be found. Thinking him to simply be in the bathroom, she closed his door behind her and opened her closet door to dig out her pajamas.

That's when she heard it. A scratching sound at his bedroom door. _I must be hearing things_, she told herself, though she wasn't very convincing. As she continued her search for her pjs, she heard it again...followed by a long, loud, droning moan.

"Ichigo?" she called out timidly. No answer. She cautiously walked to the door of his room, swallowing hard to get rid of the lump rising in her throat. She heard the sound again, and thought passingly about popping out of her gigai so she would have a method of decapitating what she was afraid was making that sound. "Don't be stupid, Rukia. Zombies aren't real. They are works of fiction. There is no reason to be afraid." She continued the mantra in her mind as she slowly reached for the doorknob and turned...and wished she hadn't.

A soon as the knob was turned, Ichigo lumbered into the room, walking stiffly, dragging his feet, and swinging his arms in a lazy manner as he shuffled along. His head was tilted slightly to the side, and his eyes had a dead look in them, as if not clearly focused on her.

"Ichigo, enough is enough. Good joke, now stop it." She laughed nervously as she backed away from him until she hit the bed, knees buckling as she fell to a sitting position onto it, and braced herself with her arms behind her. He kept coming at her. "Baka, I'm warning you. Stop this now," Rukia pleaded in the most stern, commanding voice she could manage, but even she could hear the tremor in her voice. This was not funny. Not at all.

Suddenly, to her horror, he lunged at her, in full-on zombie fashion; mouth hanging open, zombie moan-almost-growl, and made like he was going to bite into her flesh. Rukia shook violently and screamed bloody murder, tears suddenly pouring from her eyes as she sobbed.

Now, Ichigo stopped. He pulled back and sat beside her in the bed, watching her almost curl up into a seated fetal position, tears still pouring from her eyes. This was not the reaction he had expected. Without another thought, he pulled her into his arms and hugged her close. "I'm sorry, midget," he said softly. "I didn't think it would have that effect on you. I was expecting a beating at most."

She did her best to calm her sobbing. When she had regained her composure, she sat up and looked him in the eyes...and promptly punched him in the gut. He doubled over. "I said I was sorry," he managed to wheeze out.

"Don't you _**ever** _do that again, Ichigo," she rasped out through her remaining tears. She wiped her eyes hastily and turned to go to her closet... Ichigo gently but firmly grabbed her wrist.

"I really am sorry. I will never do that again. On one condition."

She sniffled before asking, "And what might that be?"

"Never lie to me again, and never use that damn Kuchiki aloofness on me again. I hated it when you used it when Byakuya came to take you to your execution, and I hated it downstairs a moment ago. Its like you're lying to me, and our friendship means more to me than that. I hope it means more than that to you, too."

She stood there a moment, not fully realizing why the word 'friendship' seemed less than a description of what the two of them shared. She nodded. "It does. And I swear that I will never lie to you, ever again."

He pulled her back to him by her wrist. "Good; I'll do the same." Without warning, he pressed his lips to hers, meeting only a moment of protest before she eagerly returned the soft kiss that spoke volumes to each other of what they really felt.

She slowly opened her eyes to meet is amber ones. "Not that I'm complaining, but what was that for?"

He smirked at her; that same confident smirk she always saw when he went into a battle he knew he could win. "We've been lying to each other on that one. That's how we should have said goodbye when I lost my powers."

Rukia smiled. "Agreed. But its also a great way for us to say hello again." And with that, she kissed him. She knew she would sleep perfectly tonight.

* * *

><p>- AN: Hello all! Sorry about the absence, but things have been crazy, and I have had writer's block out the yin yang. Hopefully, with a little luck, this will help inspire me to work on my main fic, _After the War_. I want to thank **finaldragonquest** for inspiring me to do a collection of ficlets. It was after reading theirs that I decided to put my forty billion unfinished fanfic ideas together like this instead millions of big ones.

This particular chapter was inspired by an incident two nights ago. I am deathly afraid of zombies. Its irrational, I know, but I am, and that's that. My husband loves to scare me with his overly convincing zombie impression (he really is just a little too good at it, and I feel that if a zombie apocalypse ever did occur, it would be like the little boy who cried wolf, and I'd never believe he was really one lol). This time, he was playing with our daughter (who loves zombies, btw, but the 'Plants v. Zombies' kind at this point in her three-almost-four year lifespan) and pretending to be a zombie behind our bedroom door. Trying to be brave, I grabbed her foam Nerf axe and was going to pretend to bash his brains in (we really do have a loving relationship, I promise lol), when he did a highly believeable zombie lunge at me and I freaked. I was in tears. And while I kind of doubt that Rukia would really be afraid of zombies, it was a good inspiration. Anyway, as always, reviews are highly appreciated. Please leave one...or I may take a Nerf axe to one of you next! ^_^ lol


	2. Chapter 2: Glee Club

Ch. 3: Glee Club

Ichigo rolled over and slammed the snooze button on his alarm clock. He did not want to go to school today. While that was natural for a high school student, he had a whole other reason.

Ochi-sensei was known to be a self-proclaimed 'Gleek'. In other words, she was obsessed with the American TV show, Glee. This led to her idea to start a Glee club at Karakura High. And why does this have anything to do with him? Since he had missed so much class over the past year or so, he had been required to join by Ochi-sensei, or fail this year of school. That was not an option. After pleading with his teacher, he had been told that there was no other choice. He either sang in glee club-actually _sang_ and _participated_-or failed.

He threw off his covers and noticed that there was no movement to be heard from the closet. He stood and knocked on the door of his closet. "Rukia? You awake yet? Time to get up."

The door slid open and a very groggy and disheveled Rukia looked up at him, squinting in the bright light of the sun shining through the bedroom window. She pulled the door open all the way and slowly swung her legs over the side of the shelf she slept on.

It had been a week since she had been sent to monitor his returning reiatsu. Their interaction had been turbulent at best. He still selfishly blamed her for just abandoning him and their friendship once he had lost his powers. She argued that she had not been able to return, for fear that if anyone knew how close they had become she would never be allowed to return.

Ichigo laughed softly to himself at her appearance to hide the fact that he found it incredibly cute to see her hair sticking up at awkward angles. Thoughts like that had begun to surface in his brain ever since she had come back to him. "No offense, midget, but you look like shit."

Rukia glared at him. "Thanks for the compliment, berry brain. I couldn't sleep last night because I was dreading today." She pulled her legs back into the closet and slammed the door shut so she could get dressed.

Ichigo looked at the now closed closest door, confused. "For one thing, you don't have to join. I do. Secondly, why? You love 'Glee'. I figured you would be excited. What's the matter? Can't sing?"

The closet door slid back open, and Rukia continued to glare at him. She blushed momentarily as she realized she had caught him as he was putting his undershirt on before sliding into his uniform shirt. She swallowed hard and fought to get the image of his perfectly toned torso out of her head, focusing instead on tying the bow of her uniform. "As a matter of fact, strawberry, I can sing perfectly well. I have received vocal training ever since I joined the Kuchiki clan."

"Seriously? Why did Byakuya force that on you?"

"It is required of all noble young ladies to be proficient in an art form. Such is why I took on art lessons, violin lessons, and voice lessons." She tied the bow on her uniform. "The only people who have heard me sing are my instructor, and Nii-sama. I'm just nervous singing in front of others."

"Well, I haven't heard you play the violin, but I hope you sing better than you can draw," Ichigo muttered, but unfortunately was heard loud and clear.

Rukia punched him in the back of the head. "Shut up, idiot!"

* * *

><p>"Alright, Glee Club!" Ochi-sensei announced to the students in the auditorium. She looked around the room. "Hold on before we start our performances today...we're missing one person." About the time the words came out of her mouth, two students came rushing in, both struggling for breath.<p>

"Sorry, sensei," Rukia bowed deeply. "We got caught up with an emergency."

"I don't wish to hear about your lover's rendezvous. Just take your seats. And Rukia, you are a welcome addition to the club," Ochi-sensei smirked as the bright red blush spread across both students' faces. She didn't let on, but she remembered Rukia being there before. She couldn't figure out why most of the other students didn't. It seemed that only the ones in their little circle of friends remembered her. She took a breath and began again.

"As you will remember, your assignment last week was to pull one of the five duets that I had you prepare out of a hat, even though you would not know who your partner would be. I hope you have all prepared yourselves, because this will be your first performance, and will help me decide who my strong performers are at the start." She walked over to the piano. "I will choose a name randomly from a hat filled with all of the boys' names, and then one with the girls' names. From the third hat, I will choose one of the songs that you were required to practice." She reached in to the hat. "Ishida," she called out after unfolding the paper, and then reached for a girl's name. "Inoue." She reached for the song. "Don't Go Breakin' My Heart." She rolled her eyes. _What were the odds?_ she mentally gagged as she prepared herself for their sickeningly sweet chemistry on stage. She knew that the two had recently begun to date, and it was nauseating at best to see them interact at all.

The duets rolled through, until time was almost up for the day. Rukia smirked at Ichigo. She didn't need him to speak to realize he was as relieved as she was that they had not been called upon. There couldn't possibly be time left to squeeze them in. While she was fully prepared, she was still nervous about singing in front of her fellow students. There we about six students who had not had to perform, and she each felt that she was in the clear. Their thoughts were directed back to the stage as Ochi-sensei spoke again.

"Alright club. We have time for one more duet. For those of you who haven't had to perform today, you must have been born under a lucky star." She reached into the first hat and smirked. _Gotcha!_ she thought. "Kurosaki."

Ichigo groaned as he got up out of his seat as slowly as he could, cursing under his breath. A part of him thought that just maybe if he took his time getting to the stage, he could run out the clock. As he was making his way down the aisle, mentally running the lyrics to the songs he had rehearsed, the girl's name almost froze him in his tracks.

"Kuchiki."

Rukia slinked out of her own seat and made her way to the stage; confident that it was the butterflies in her stomach flapping their wings so hard that was propelling her to what would feel like her execution platform. However, the song stopped both of them in their tracks.

"Somebody That I Used To Know," sensei smirked. _This should be interesting. I wish I had some popcorn for this one. _She walked to a seat in the audience and got comfortable. Uryuu and Orihime watched with tense looks on their faces. They knew that Rukia and Ichigo had had a rough reunion this week. This would only add fuel to the already raging fire.

Ichigo decided to take the first verse from her. As he had rehearsed it over this past week, it just seemed to verbalize what it was like when she was gone…

"_Now and then I think of when we were together_

_Like when you said you felt so happy you could die_

_Told myself that you were right for me_

_But felt so lonely in your company_

_But that was love and it's an ache I still remember."_

Ochi-sensei was amazed at the raw emotions she was witnessing from both of them. She had never seen this side of Ichigo—both his singing voice, and opening up like he was.

Rukia wanted to cringe into a corner. This was not how she wanted to hash this out. As it was, she was fighting tears. They had already gotten into one fight today, and this was not helping things. Ever the Kuchiki, she swallowed her tears and completed the task before her…

"_You can get addicted to a certain kind of sadness_

_Like resignation to the end, always the end_

_So when we found that we could not make sense_

_Well you said that we would still be friends_

_But I'll admit that I was glad it was over."_

Ichigo broke in on the chorus so strong that it made her jump, both from the power behind his voice, the intense look in his stormy amber eyes, and the venom behind the words…

"_But you didn't have to cut me off_

_Make it like it never happened and that we were nothing_

_I don't even need your love, but you treat me like a stranger_

_And I feel so rough…"_

There were tears in Orihime's eyes at this point, seeing the pain oozing from her two friends as they performed. She and Uryuu looked on as both Ichigo and Rukia jumped in at the same time now, their voices blending like a bittersweet symphony…

"_No, you didn't have to stoop so low_

_Have your friends collect your records_

_And then change your number_

_Guess that I don't need that though_

_Now you're just somebody that I used to know._

_Now you're just somebody that I used to know_

_Now you're just somebody that I used to know."_

Rukia jumped on the next verse, feeling the hurt and the pain bubbling up inside her, she poured it into her performance…

"_Now and then I think of all the times you screwed me over_

_Part of me believing it was always something that I'd done_

_But I don't wanna live that way_

_Reading into every word you say_

_You said that you could let it go_

_And I wouldn't catch you hung up on somebody that you used to know (oh)"_

Ichigo took the chorus, with her joining halfway through…

"_But you didn't have to cut me off_

_Make it like it never happened and that we were nothing (oh)_

_I don't even need your love, but you treat me like a stranger_

_And I feel so rough_

_No, you didn't have to stoop so low_

_Have your friends collect your records_

_And then change your number (oh)_

_Guess that I don't need that though_

_Now you're just somebody that I used to know"_

Tears were streaming down Rukia's face at this point, as they finished the song in harmony, even if their feelings weren't…

"_Somebody that I used to know_

_Somebody (now you're just somebody that I used to know)_

_That I used to know_

_Somebody that I used to know_

_Somebody (somebody)_

_(Now you're just somebody that I used to know)_

_That I used to know"_

Ichigo forced the tears to remain in his eyes. He would not let her see him cry. Of all the fucking songs that could have come up, it had to be this one. He could see her crying, and it killed him to see her cry. What a way to end the first week of her being back in his life.

_"I used to know  
>That I used to know<br>I used to know  
>Somebody"<em>

As soon as the song was over, Rukia ran past Ochi-sensei as fast as her legs would carry her, muttering, "Excuse me," as she exited the stage and the auditorium. Ichigo stood for a moment watching her leave, then left the stage in the opposite direction.

Ochi-sensei watched the scene before her. She couldn't cut the tension in here if she had a knife! _These two really need to talk…there is a lot there that they don't show anyone else._ _I didn't mean to make something like that happen. _"Alright, everyone, show's over! Next, week, prepare a song that says something about who you are."

Rukia ran to the roof of the school, gasping for breath from running so hard. She sank to her knees against the brick wall next to the door she had just slammed. She couldn't catch her breath from crying so hard. _It wasn't supposed to be like this…this isn't how I imagined being back here would be…_

So lost in her thoughts was she, that she didn't sense or hear Ichigo open the door and step out onto the roof next to her. When he spoke to her, she jumped.

"What the hell was that in there?" he fumed.

"What do you mean?" she sobbed. "We sang a song that obviously communicated things between us better than we could on our own!"

Ichigo growled and angrily ran his hands through his hair. He walked to the other side of the roof, then back again, having walked off a few degrees of his anger. "I missed the hell out of you, Rukia," he blurted out, causing her to look up at him suddenly. She got to her feet.

"And you think I didn't miss you? You were my first thought waking, and my last thought before I went to sleep. If you could call it sleep. Mostly it was nightmares of what would have happened if Aizen had killed you!" She walked closer to him. "The only reason I finally achieved the rank I have, is because training was the only thing keeping me sane. I kept telling myself that you would be so proud of me; that this was what I needed to do in order to see you again." She looked at the ground. "Little did I know that we would be fighting the whole damn time." She wiped her eyes and looked up at him. "I should go back. I'll get them to send Renji, because this is not working out how I had hoped."

As she turned to walk away from him, he grabbed her arm, gently, but firmly. "You're not going back yet. I won't let you."

"You don't own me, Ichigo. Give me one good reason why I should stay here and fight with the person that has been my closest friend!"

He stood for a moment, thinking. _Now or never, Kurosaki_. _If you don't do this, she'll walk away, possibly forever. If you do this, she still might, but at least you tried. Here goes nothing._ Without another thought, he pulled her close and pressed his lips gently to hers. Her shock froze her at first, but then she melted into the embrace. When they pulled apart, he actually answered her question with words.

"Because I'm through fighting. Both over you being gone, and fighting what I feel for you. You're more than my friend, Rukia. We have a connection that goes deeper than that. You feel it too, don't you?"

She could only nod. Words failed her at this point.

"Then we're going to forget this week happened, and start over with this reunion." He stepped back and smirked at her. "This is how it should have gone." He wrapped his arms around her tightly, hugging her to him. "Welcome home, Rukia."

She smiled. And laughed softly into his chest as he held her close. "Now this is how I imagined this would go."

* * *

><p>AN: This plot bunny attacked me on my way to work one morning. I'm a big fan of Glee, and was listening to my playlist of it while walking. I got an idea for a chapterseries within my ficlet series. Don't ask, just hopefully enjoy my little one shot/possibly longer (if you like this idea) fic. Maybe you love it, maybe you hate it, but as always, please review!


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